Instructions for printing and displaying

health and safety signs

This is an A4 read-only PDF document. It is recommended that you save this document to your own
computer before printing. All signs must be printed in colour.

The colour of the signs when printed may not be the same as viewed within Citation’s Training
Resource and Citation cannot be held responsible for any difference in colours after printing. These
signs have been created in ‘RGB’ format, and have been optimised for small office/home printers.

The Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996 require an employer to provide
safety signs where other control measures cannot satisfactorily deal with an assessed risk. Remember
a sign is not a substitute for other control measures (e.g. Safe systems of work). Safety signs are split
into the following categories:

Prohibition sign
This sign prohibits certain actions or behaviour that could cause or increase
risk (e.g. “No entry”)

Warning sign
This sign warns of a hazard or danger (e.g. “Warning Electricity”)

Mandatory sign
This sign instructs on specific behaviour that must be followed (e.g. “Safety
boots must be worn”)

Safe Condition sign

These are information signs (e.g. the location of escape routes and first aid
stations)

Fire equipment sign

These signs inform all persons in the workplace of the location and type of
firefighting equipment (e.g. Fire extinguishers)

If you are unsure which sign/s you need to display in or around the workplace please call the Citation
Health and Safety Helpline on 0845 844 4848.

All signs have been created for use solely by Citation clients. Certain signs contain public sector information published by the Health and Safety Executive
and licensed under the Open Government Licence v1.0’
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